The present invention relates in general to the provision of location-based services to users, and more specifically, to methods, systems and computer program products that provide personalized services to a user based on a current location of the user.
In the field of provision of location-based services to users, recommender-type service systems are known. Recommender-type service systems typically react to an input from a user (e.g., a question or query from a user), and then return the results of a search personalized to the location of the user and the topic of the user's question or query. That is, they “recommend” something in response to a user question or query. For example, if a user asks about relatively good restaurants in the current area of the user (e.g., based on a restaurant rating service), the recommender system typically returns to the user a list of such good restaurants in that area (e.g., within a certain specified distance of the current location of the user). The list can include informational items such as, for example, the name of each restaurant, its location, its rating, whether or not it has valet parking, etc.
However, recommender-type systems have drawbacks, which include, for example, that the system is inherently “passive” or “reactive” in that it waits for a specific question or query from a user before providing a service. Once the service is provided, the recommender service system typically waits until it receives another question or query form the user before once again reacting to the question or query.
Thus, in the field of provision of location-based services to users, there is a need for a system that is proactive in that it triggers the provision of services based on a sensed or determined location of a user within a particular environment (e.g., a parking facility), with the services being selectively provided by an appropriate one or more sensor-type objects (“active components”) that are communicatively coupled together in a configuration (e.g., the Internet of Things—“IoT”), and with the services being tailored to the specific sensed or determined location of the user (e.g., personalized car security at a parking facility).